Controversial Copenhagen imam defends antisemitic sermon

Imam Mundhir Abdallah, who was accused last week of giving a sermon at a Copenhagen mosque inciting hate against Jews, says he has been the victim of a conspiracy.

In a Facebook interview with newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad, Mundhir rejected the broad criticism levelled at him after it emerged last week that he had cited a hadith that can be interpreted as anti-Semitic during a Friday sermon in March this year.

The hadith – a lesson on the prophet Mohammed's life or record of his speech that is used as a basis for Islamic tradition – includes the phrase "'Judgement Day will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them.' The Jews will hide behind the rocks and the trees, but the rocks and trees will say: 'Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him'," according to a translation by American institute Memri.